Part 15 (1/2)
”Are you engaged to marry Miss Patricia Langdon?” demanded Morton, abruptly; and there was a tightening of his lips and a slight forward thrust of his aggressive chin.
Duncan received the question calmly. He thought, afterward, that he had almost antic.i.p.ated it, although he could not have told why he should do so. He permitted nothing of the effect the question had upon him to appear in the expression of his face, or eyes, and he continued to gaze smilingly into the face of the young ranchman, while he replied:
”I see no objection to answering your question, Mr. Morton, although I do not in the least understand your reason for asking it. Miss Langdon and I are engaged to be married, and the wedding-day is already fixed.
It is to be next Monday morning, at ten o'clock. I hope, sir, that you are quite satisfied with the reply?”
Morton did not speak for a moment, but he reached out one hand and rested it on the back of a chair, near which he was standing. Duncan, perceiving the gesture, asked again:
”Won't you be seated, Mr. Morton?”
”Thank you, yes.”
He dropped his huge body upon the leather-upholstered chair beside him, and crossed one leg over the other, while Duncan retained his att.i.tude beside the table, still with that questioning expression in his eyes.
”I suppose I ought to make some farther explanation,” said Morton, presently. He spoke with careful deliberation, choosing his words as he did so and evidently striving hard to maintain complete composure of demeanor under circ.u.mstances that rendered the task somewhat difficult.
”I think one is due to me,” was the reply.
”Mr. Duncan, when I hit the trail for this room, to have this talk with you, I sure thought that I had mapped out pretty clearly what I had to say to you. I find now that it's some difficult to express myself. If we were seated together in a bunk-house on a ranch in Montana, I could uncinch all that's on my mind, without any trouble. I hope you don't mind my native lingo.”
”Not in the least,” replied Duncan, still smiling. ”I find it very expressive, and quite to the point.”
”Well, it's this way: I arrived in the city about three weeks ago, and one of the first persons I met up with, who interested me was Miss Langdon. There isn't any reason that I know of why I shouldn't admit to you that she interested me more, in about three seconds of time, than anybody else has ever succeeded in doing, during the twenty-eight years I have lived. I was roped, tied, and branded, quicker than it takes me to tell you of it; and the odd part of the whole thing is that I enjoyed the experience, instead of resenting it. I think it was the second time I met up with her when I told her about it, and it is only fair to her, and to you, to admit that she said 'No,'
Johnny-on-the-spot. But, somehow, it didn't strike me that it was a final 'no,' or that she had anybody's brand on her; and so I didn't lose the hope that some day I might induce her to accept mine. Last Sat.u.r.day afternoon, I took her in my car, in company with two other ladies, to her father's office, down-town. She had an interview with her father and somebody else, I suspect, while she was in the office, and whatever that interview was, I am plumb certain that it didn't please her. She come out of the building with her eyes blazing like two live coals, and she was mad enough to shoot, if I am any judge.”
He paused, as if expecting some comment from Duncan, but the latter made no remark at all; nor did he change his att.i.tude or the smiling expression of his face. Truth to tell, he was more amused than offended by the other's confidences. Morton continued:
”I had half-promised Miss Langdon that I wouldn't speak to her again of love, but I sure couldn't hold in, that afternoon. I needn't tell you what I said; but the consequence of it was that she told me she had just concluded a business transaction--that was the expression she used--by which she had promised to marry a man whom she would not name. Since that time, I have studied the situation rather deeply, with the result that I came to the conclusion you were the man to whom she referred. That is why I have called upon you this evening, to ask you the question you have just answered.”
”Well?” said Duncan. His smile was more constrained, now.
”I'm sure puzzled to know what Miss Langdon means by the 'business transaction' part of it, Mr. Duncan, and I have come up here, to your own room, to tell you that, if Patricia Langdon loves you--”
”One moment, if you please, Mr. Morton. Don't you think you're going rather too far, now?”
”No sir, I don't.”
”Very well, I'll listen to you, to the end.”
”If Patricia Langdon loves you, Duncan, I'll hit the trail for Montana and the sky-line this afternoon, and I'll ask you to pardon me for any break I have made here, this evening; but, if she doesn't love you, and if, as I suspect, you are coercing her in this matter--”
Again, Duncan interrupted the ranchman. He did it this time by straightening his tall figure, and raising one hand for silence.
”I think, Mr. Morton,” he said, coldly, ”that you are presuming rather too far. These are personal matters between Miss Langdon and myself, which I may not discuss with you.”
Morton sprang to his feet, and faced Duncan across the table.
”By G.o.d! you've got to discuss this with me!” he said; and his jaws snapped together, while he bent forward, glaring into Duncan's eyes.